WILLIAM THOM.
WILLIAM Taos, the humble poet of Inverury,* has fallen among the thousand sacrifices to the total want of provision in our social scheme for men of his class. Thom was a weaver, not averse from the patient and courageous industry of his craft. He had faced want and domestic misery without losing his good heart. But he had refined perceptions, which made him conscious of what was uncongenial in his lot ; and his natural aspirations re- ceived a delusive stimulus from a transient patronage.
The tribe of humble poets and litterateurs are wont to come to London, like moths to the candle, to be scorched and fevered in a blaze that imparts no vital warmth. He was feted, and probably received some temporary help : , he was made to bums. the life of the educated, without being enabled to share it as a denizen. He went back to his loom ; bore up bravely against disappointment ; sang to the last of cheerfulness and brotherly union ; and died. It appears that he had married a second time; and he leaves a widow with several children quite destitute.
It is a disgrace to our social system that this history, should so often have to be written. If any proof were needed that refined natures can grapple with the duties of industry, however humble, Thom gave it. But material industry will not supply sustenance for such natures. Out of a congenial atmosphere, they pine and are lost. That is not a fault to deplore, but simply a fact. The fleeting and intoxicating indulgence which such spirits snatch in the saloons of lionizing idlers and professed exhibiters, serves only to excite wants which it supplies no means of satisfying. Yet it would not be impossible to contrive a system of employ- ments which might be performed by men of literary bent, so that they should fulfil the duties of labour, but within an atmosphere suited to their organization. This has been suggested before; but the list of sacrifices continues.
The substitute for a living endowment of literary poverty, now in vogue, is a posthumous subscription to support the widows and orphans. Thom having perished, it is remembered that his wife and children are mortal ; and a subscription is set on foot in Dundee, under the lead of the Provost Mr. Thorns, the Reverend George Gilfillan, and other gentlemen. Already we see eminent names in the list of subscribers. It will of course be yet further extended, as humanity seeks to compensate its neglects by these penitential and posthumous attentions.
• An account of Thom and his writings may be found in the Spectator for 1844, at
page 880.
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